Sunflowers are an unusual sight in southern NSW but have distinct advantages which are making them an attractive option as an irrigated summer crop around Darlington Point (near Griffith). The attraction of growing sunflowers is not only the positive gross margins on offer but also the flexibility of the crop. The wide sowing window which allows either an early (September) or a late plant (January) combines to provide a split in the requirements for labour, machinery and irrigation water at critical times during the season. Double cropping also becomes a more realistic option on the late plant.
For irrigators in southern NSW, sunflowers provide an option to sow a small area of crop before the sowing window for other summer crops like soybean and grain sorghum opens and also allows growers to utilise any late increases in water allocation on a late sown crop.
Sunflowers this season have proved to have a lower water requirement at 5-6 ML/ha when compared to corn which usually requires 9 ML/ha. While their water use was comparable with soybean it is the wider planting window which gives sunflowers the advantage over its oilseed cousin.
This season with a crop of Hyoleic 41 there has been the chance to establish some ground rules for optimising sunflower production in the MIA. However, sourcing sufficient information on the basic agronomy of growing sunflowers in the south has proved a challenge, with little local experience on aspects such as hybrid selection, plant population, irrigation timing and the distance to a delivery point being further than desirable. While they are still an opportunity crop in the south at this stage, with continued growth in the market and attractive pricing they could easily make themselves a regular crop in the rotation.